Johann won both races. The only guy that was genuinely close, I think, was Palacio. Robert, Walsh and McKay had good fights in a following pack.
I really had a great weekend.
There were some problems en route tho. About an hour out of Savannah my trailer electrical connector popped out of my hitch. I dragged it for a couple hrs before I realized the problem and I had only frayed spaghetti left. I stopped at a couple truck stops looking for a connector to no avail. Then I started making some phone calls trying to find an Atlanta type that might be able to get me a connector and bring it when they came to the track in the morning. Childress squared me away and I wired it in Sat morning.
I got to the track at 9:30PM and the gate guard almost didn’t let me in. I had to beg and plead to get in. He said that NASA didn’t pay for the gate to stay open, but half the time the guard says that, it turns out to be not true, so I don’t know what the deal was.
Saturday Practice I took it easy christening engine #9. Engine #8 had odd oil pressure problems in it’s debut and damaged it’s bearings. Chuck Baader “blueprinted” my pump by pulling the best components out of several to get perfect tolerances, and replaced the oil pressure control valve.
I spent a lot of time in Practice comparing my new mechanical oil pressure gauge to the electrical oil pressure gauge. Verdict: My electrical gauge, I had only 1 of two hooked up, indicates 5psi low.
I was also running with no oil cooler. For the hottest race weekend of the year. I removed the oil pan shield so air flow could cool the oil pan, something that seemed to have a significant affect in recent testing.
My peak oil temp for the weekend was 210deg. We need to rethink our oil pan shield and allowing airflow to the pan. I’m probably not going to run an oil cooler anymore, I’m just going to cut some holes in my shield.
In Qual Sat I pushed harder. Turns 3 and 5 were still kinda weak. My turn 7 was average but I was getting thru turn 1 a little faster then usual. But critically, I wasn’t sucking wind with a weak motor or lean DME. I wasn’t really gaining on anyone in the straights, but I certainly wasn’t losing ground either. To my surprise I qual’d 6.
I ran 1:46’s and 1:47’s at RA last fall at the BMWCCA race weekend, but I’d never done that again, much to my frustration. Looking back, it was probably tired DME’s creating lean mixtures. Which is easier on the self esteeem then being slow because I suck.
Saturday race is a bit of a fog. I’m having video problems and that’s not helping. Coming down the front stretch I couldn’t figure out where the flagger was. Then I saw the green and dove to the inside. And then practically came to a stop entering turn 1 as the entire line of cars slowed way down. The outside cars swooped by and I went from 6th to something like 10th in an eyeblink.
Lako gave me a love tap in the rear so I’d know he was there. Since the bumper was fastened to frame rail peices that I’d had to cobble together from steel bits, I had no idea if it would hold. But Lako has one of those girly plastic bumpers so I figured it ought to do at least as good as one of those.
Lako wanted to be sure tho. So he tapped me again going into 3.
When I got thru 3 I noticed Laura behind me sideways. In my rearview mirror there were cars going everywhere. I learned then that one of the charms of qualing up front is that you might end up ahead of the goatscrews.
Sadly, I don’t remember much in the way of details. But a couple cars spun in front of me, a particularly entertaining one being Fred, and I got back up to 6th by the checker.
Sunday Qual I was on track for the greatest lap of my life. I’d spent the first 3 laps just getting enough space for my one perfect lap. Saturday I’d made 3 attempts to get enough space but I kept running up on people and hosing up my golden lap. But Sunday I was going to really square it away. Lap 4 of Qual was a thing of beauty. I was enroute for a truly magical time. Turnip bobbled the exit of 7 so I was heading down the back straight pulling on him and I had plenty of time to make a pass and get into 10A clean.
Which is when the rolling yellow chicane VW ruined my day. He saw Turnip, but not me. He pulled wide to let Turnip by, but then darted in front of me. I had a high rate of closure and no place to go. It was pretty bad. Even Turnip was pissed.
On the last lap of qual I had to check up to get around a Miata, but to my surprise it was still good enough to qual 4th.
For today’s race I was determined to not end up in the slow lane. Robert was in front of me and I got a jump on him at the start but couldn’t put together a pass by the time we were exiting 1. I ran in 4th for a couple laps trying to keep Scott McKay behind me and stay close to Robert and Walsh. Johann started checking out immed.
There’s no place that McKay is slow. I can qual ahead of him I guess, but I certainly couldn’t get away from him. Then he got a better 7 then I did so I let him by on the back straight because I figured he’d earned that fair and square.
I then spent most of the race just behind the furiously fighting group of McKay, Wash and Patton. McKay wanted blood, Robert wasn’t going to roll over and give it to him, and Walsh wanted second. They started checking out on me a couple times, but I managed to hang.
With about 5min to go in the race, and only Turnip visible in my rear view mirror a way back, I started thinking that I had 4th sewn up if I could just hold it together.
Which is when I didn’t. As the tires got hotter my rear end got looser and I looped it on the exit of 7. That was a pisser. Several folks passed me and I charged after Fred. I tried to fight past Fred a couple times but couldn’t make it stick. We had a particularly good run at 1 side by side. Ultimately he let my by on the back stretch. I think I finished 6th. For the 2nd day running.
Is just tragic that we’re not doing the brake pads for 6th place thing anymore.
I would find out later that since both McKay and Walsh ended up spinning and loosing several places, if I’d a just hung in there I’d a gotten on the podium. My first NASA podium. Shit.
It was one of the best weekend I’d had in a year or two. I didn’t touch a wrench or a jack all weekend. My can ran fine. My oil temp did fine without the cooler, almost certainly because the air flow allowed the oil pan to provide a lot of cooling. The only thing that was really screwed up was my video.
Thanks to the Palacios for giving me a place to sleep.
Wrench effort of the weekend was Stroup replacing intake rocker #1.
Good Samaritan effort was Jim giving Thunder a race redo at the end of the day because both their Qual and Race consisted of 2 laps due to incidents. Although McKay bringing his girlfriend to the event also earns praise for the effect it had on our morale. My morale anyways.
The Pattons organized Mexican chow Sat night and that was excellent. The whole weekend was just damned fun.
congrats dude.